


Ready to Roll

by ZoisiteMoon



Series: The Gemstone Saga [7]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon), Team Fortress 2
Genre: Crossover, F/F, F/M, Forced Insemination, Het and Slash, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-20
Updated: 2016-01-01
Packaged: 2018-04-05 06:49:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 9
Words: 7,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4170084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZoisiteMoon/pseuds/ZoisiteMoon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hell's about to break loose when Mann Co. encounters anthropomorphic space rocks and two worlds threaten to collide.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

September 7, 1972

Teufort, New Mexico

It seemed that even when it was 82 degrees out, nothing could stop the denizens from doing whatever they pleased even if it was illegal. Violet Sanger was no different from the other New Mexicans in that regard; sure, she had a little bit more money and bore an uncanny resemblance to one of the greatest Hollywood actresses of all time, but nevertheless the fifty-two-year-old woman regarded herself as just your average American.

In fact, she and her young son Archie were currently at a post-Labor Day sale, looking for some antiques to decorate the house. It wasn't every day that they went out to find new furniture and/or decorations for the house but at the same time, it was nice to get out and actually do something that could subjectively be considered fun. So far, they hadn't had any luck finding anything that stood out to her; even if they had, it still wouldn't change the fact that Archie found this whole thing extremely boring and desperately wanted out of there.

"Not yet, son," Violet chided him. "I just need one thing. One thing. If you can be patient until we leave, then I might get you that Spider-Man comic you've been asking me about."

"Fine," ten-year-old Archie huffed. "But I will not be happy."

As the mother continued her search for what she hoped would be the perfect artifact, Archie couldn't resist feeling listless about the whole thing. Just as he was about to give in to what he felt would be a new form of torture, however, he suddenly caught sight of a shiny powder-blue stone near him.

"Hey, Mom!" he shouted while tugging on her sleeve. "Look what I found!"

Violet gazed down at her son to scold him before seeing the pebble-sized rock for herself.

"That's strange," she muttered. "I don't remember seeing this around here."

"Me neither," said Archie. "What do you think it is?"

"Well, if I had to guess, it's probably a rock that time forgot about."

"Really? Can I give it to Olivia please?"

"You mean that girl you've had a crush on for three months now? Sure, I guess. Let's just finish this first."

***

It had taken approximately three and a half hours just for Violet to drive up to Mann Co. HQ and frankly, it seemed worth it. Apparently, not a lot of people came to this place and if they did, they were either employees or at least closely associated with Gray Mann, who owned both this and Gray Gravel. She considered herself lucky for even being able to find it at all.

"Well, Archie," she said. "This is it. You sure you want to go through with this?"

Archie enthusiastically nodded his head.

"Alright," she began. "First of all, I'm going to ask. Do you still have that rock with you?"

"Yeah, Mom," answered the boy while producing the light blue pebble from his pocket. "Right here."

"Good, good. Let's head inside."

"Okay, but what if her dad doesn't like me?"

"You're one of the most handsome boys at your school, Archie, and you seem very clever and resourceful. I don't see what he wouldn't like about you. Now get moving."

***

When they'd made their way inside the building, they found themselves stopped by a burly, intimidating man wearing a steel-blue bandana that covered his gray head, blue goggles and a blue sleeveless shirt with overalls.

"Er, can I help you?" Violet asked this man.

"Yes, you can," he replied. "For starters, do you have any idea where some mercenaries might be?"

"Mercenaries...? No, my son and I just wanted to hand Olivia a gift. You know, just for her?"

"Show me."

"Right." She prompted Archie to hand over the stone. "I believe this is enough?"

Classic Heavy looked over this curiously odd rock carefully. "Where did you get this?"

"It was from that store Archie and I were shopping at. Why?"

"Last I checked, we don't have pretty blue stones like this around here. Come to think of it, I don't think this is even native to America!"

"W-What are you implying?"

"Wherever this came from, it might help Mann Co. get back to the way it was before. Hell, I think it could bring the entire world down to its knees!"

Just as he'd said this, the rock began to float up away from his palm. It then emitted a light blue aura, which in turn produced a halo of light that formed into a humanoid shape. When this was all done, all three humans were awestruck by this mysterious stranger.

As it turned out, this strange woman was a Gem. She had sky blue skin with facial scars that apparently came from a lightning strike, slate blue eyes, a mole above her upper lip, several brass neck rings, electric blue hair which was 80% shaved off (and exposed the stone she'd come from at the back of her head), and an outfit that came in a muted blue palette (save, of course, for her gladiator sandals).

"Alright, who are you and what am I doing here?" were the first words to come out of her mouth.

"I'm so glad you asked!" answered Violet with zeal. "I'm Violet Sanger and this is my son Burgundy." She gestured to Archie. "Of course, I just call him Archie after his father, God bless him."

"What about him?" the azureous Gem asked again, pointing at Classic Heavy.

This time, it was him who'd reciprocated. "Oh, I used to work for BLU back in the 1930s before I was laid off. My name's Amos Sterling, by the way."

"Amos Sterling... that's probably too badass for your own good," Violet commented. "At least it sounds more authentic than 'Saxton Hale.'"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Classic Heavy asked like she'd just offended him.

"Hey, guys!" Archie shouted at the adults. "Can't it wait until after she tells us who she is?"

"Thank you, Archie," the Gem said. "I am Kaolinite, one of the best bounty hunters in Mineralis."

"What's...?" Violet was going to ask before switching gears. "Anyway, dear little Archie was going to hand you over to his lady friend as a gift. That's the entire reason we came to her father's business in the first place."

"Really? Is that all?"

"Pretty much so... unless you want something from us too."

Kaolinite thought for a minute before finally saying, "There is one thing..."


	2. Chapter 2

**Meanwhile travelling through Santa Fe...**

"I don't know about you, but I think this vacation thing is a bad idea," said Pearl as she tried her hardest not to fidget around inside a stranger's car while the other Crystal Gems were with her. "Seriously, we should be back in Beach City watching out for monsters or... or..."

"Pearl, just relax," Garnet interrupted her. "We're only going to spend a week here in New Mexico. That's all."

"Yeah, c'mon, P," Amethyst jumped in. "It's not like disaster follows us wherever we go or anything."

Pearl sighed. "I guess you're right," she acquiesced. "Besides, I don't think Beach City needs us right now anyway. They'll be fine without us."

Rose Quartz interjected, "Of course they will. They have lives to get on with, you know."

The pink-haired Gem looked down at the rest of the Crystal Gems; they had shapeshifted into various articles of clothing and an oversized Gucci purse and were now being strewn about as the latest car they were hitchhiking in swerved here and there to get to its destination.

"Hey, man, slow down!" Amethyst yelled at the driver. "It feels like you're running from the po-po or something!"

He didn't respond.

"C'mon, what's your deal?!" the purple Gem yelled again.

"Amethyst, would you please shut up?" Pearl asked of her. "He's trying to get somewhere!"

"Nah, it's alright, mate!" the driver yelled out. "It's all in a life's work of a sniper!"

"Sniper?" asked Rose out of genuine confusion. "What do you mean by that?"

"What do you think? I have to earn money somehow."

Rose, Garnet, Pearl, and Amethyst all looked at each other with concern as they struggled to comprehend if the man was joking or not; surely, it couldn't have been true but they were too afraid to ask for confirmation.

"So where are you going anyway, Mister...?" Pearl was going to ask before he cut her off.

"Mundy," he said. "Ian Mundy. But just call me Sniper."

"Where are we going, Mr. Mundy?" Pearl asked again.

Ian didn't answer her.

"Oh, I see," Amethyst beamed with excitement. "You're one of those mysterious guys, aren't you?"

**A couple hours later in Teufort...**

"Well," Pearl began. "I can't say I had very high hopes for this place, but it doesn't look like the kind of town that'd attract tourists."

"It does seem pretty lacking," Garnet concurred. "Still, it wouldn't kill us to take a look around."

"Yeah," Zirconia jumped in. "Besides, the people seem friendly enough. Now where can we find some stuff?"

Rose giggled at this a bit. While Zirconia had gotten better when it came to interacting with humans, she'd never forgotten her obsession over their luxuries or cultural artifacts (or even their own commodities for that matter).

"Come along, guys!" Rose called out to the rest of her comrades behind her. "We've got things to do!"

And so they walked and walked a bit through a few streets and avenues, watching some of the regular folk pass by them as though nothing about them was out of the ordinary. Rose couldn't help but smile at this; since none of the Teufortians seemed to notice the rocks on their bodies, they'd probably gotten used to walking amongst Gems over the last several decades on this Earth. By now, in fact, a Gem summoning her weapon or otherwise flaunting her abilities might as well have been a daily occurrence for them.

"Don't you think it's a little strange how well they've taken to us?" Tanzanite asked while a nagging premonition was starting to set in.

"I don't see what you mean," Rose said while looking back at some of the humans.

"Do you remember when we were going through Las Vegas?"

"Maybe a little. We were, erm, 'hammered' as the humans say."

"While we couldn't really remember anything, I will admit some of the humans did think of us as untrustworthy."

"But they let us go!" an adolescent-appearing Topaz whined.

"I think they were just being polite," Pearl contributed.

"Anyway," Tanzanite continued. "The humans here seem a little too used to us. I don't know how many Gems there might've been that lived here at one point, but I doubt there were enough to make a regular appearance."

The blue Gem had left a pause there, like she was expecting another to follow up on what she'd said. Instead, all she heard back was nothing. They continued to trek across the streets and avenues, but this time, they kept a sharp eye on the humans as they passed by like there was nothing unusual going on. Eventually, one of the Gems couldn't help but notice one of their own right up ahead.

"Hey, look who it is!" Topaz hissed to Jade while pointing at a zaftig, bright red Gem in the horizon.

The green Gem squinted her eyes a bit to see if what they were seeing was right. But before either one of them could confirm anything, the mysterious Gem had already disappeared.

"Eh, already gone," Jade muttered. "Makes you wonder what she might be up to..."


	3. Chapter 3

Meanwhile at Mann Co.

Kaolinite gazed out the window, wondering how in the world she could've gotten herself into this situation. As it turned out, her new mistress was a seven-year-old girl who seemed to have known luxury all her life and nothing else; to make matters stranger, it seemed the girl's father had somehow managed to live to be 150 years old (and still even be alive) with technology equivalent to what could be found back in Mineralis. She couldn't help but wonder what she was doing here on Earth in the first place. The last thing she could remember before she retreated into her gem was falling from the sky at fifty-five miles per hour and then crash-landing into the hard ground below; where she had fallen from was a complete mystery to her.

Violet and Archie were keeping a close watch on their otherworldly subject, desperately trying to calm their nerves over what exactly she was going to do. This was an extraterrestrial being they were dealing with and from their experience, most extraterrestrial beings tended to have their minds set on a conquest of some sort. They weren't sure if Kaolinite wouldn't be considering such a thing; nevertheless, the blue Gem seemed relatively benign at the moment.

"So..." began Violet. "Kaolinite, I've been meaning to ask you about something."

Kaolinite turned her whole body to face her. "Yes, what is it?" she asked.

"What's Mineralis and what exactly do I need to know about it?"

"Do you want the full story or the abridged version?"

"I guess it doesn't matter."

"Alright," The bounty hunter Gem inhaled sharply and began. "In the beginning, nothing existed. There was no light, no solid ground, no air, no gravity, and no order; we call this the Emptiness. Then a tree grew and a woman named Amber, our first Great Goddess, climbed out. She had many, many children including her husband Malachite who-"

"Okay, but what does this have to do with Mineralis?"

"I'm getting there, so please keep quiet. As I was saying, one of Amber's children was her husband Malachite, the god of prophecy. Together, they presided over the original generation, the Rhinestones."

"The Rhinestones?"

"Yes, they were the ones who created Mineralis and made it hospitable. Mineralis itself is a dimension of infinite space, encompassing all sorts of life imaginable. Currently, Gems are the most prominent species to have ever existed, not to mention the most powerful. You're looking at one of them now."

Violet's jaw hung open while she tried to comprehend everything Kaolinite had explained to her. When she was sure her brain had soaked it all in, she asked again, "You're a Gem?"

"Obviously, that should go without saying," Kaolinite said as smugly as she could muster. "There used to be millions of us here on Earth, but only a cluster of them remains now."

Just then, Classic Heavy came in.

"Amos, did you hear what she was saying?" Violet asked as soon as she saw him.

"I heard enough," he replied. "This could really help Gray out."

"It could? Why? What would he need one for?"

"To refuel his life-extender."

Violet squinted a bit at him, trying again to comprehend what she just heard. "W-What was that?" she asked him.

"His life-extender," Amos reiterated. "He has one infused into his spine and it's been running low lately."

Violet pursed her lips at this. "And these Gems could solve his problem how?"

"Well, for one, his life-extender is only running at 58% on Australium right now. If it runs out, he's fucked. He'll die and if he dies, I don't get paid and neither do the other guys. And if we don't get paid..."

"You won't have a job anymore, right?" Archie asked.

"That's where I assume things would be going," Violet told her son. She then focused her attention on Amos. "So why not just get more Australium?"

"See, here's the thing: there isn't any more," Amos said. "We need the Gems to come in and fix everything."

"It would especially help if we could get our hands on Rose Quartz." Kaolinite interjected. "I assume you know who she is?"

"Barely," Amos muttered out.

Amos had only ever encountered this Rose Quartz once, and that was when he and the old gang were still working under the now-deceased brother Blutarch. He could barely remember how ethereal she was (probably not helped by the fact that she'd had a bright pink aura to her) and he never heard her speak; really, all she'd done was distract him a bit from his mission in taking out the enemy and then just leave him dazed and confused.

Violet, on the other hand, had heard of her and her adventures around the world from the stories her dad used to tell her when she was younger; of course, she always thought he'd made her up just to entertain his five children and give them the motivation they needed to follow their dreams. In fact now that she thought about it, the heroine's name, Rose Courtney, sounded a little too familiar.

"She used to go on adventures with her friends, right?" Violet could barely breathe out.

"She went on adventures, alright, but not the kind you'd think of." the blue Gem answered. "I'm not talking like she just went out and fought monsters. She changed history... human history. Did you know, for example, that she's the reason Christianity exists? I didn't myself until..."

"Until what?"

Kaolinite sat there in silence for a moment and then said, "I saw her in Jerusalem for myself."

"You actually saw her? Well, where do you think she is now?"

"I don't know, but I think my partner Cinnabar is looking for me. Maybe she'll help."


	4. Chapter 4

Meanwhile with the Crystal Gems...

Topaz groaned so loudly that everyone within a five-mile radius could hear her. "I can't believe it," she whined. "We spotted another Gem and she just disappeared right as I was going to show you!"

"I don't know what that was about," Jade stated. "But if we ever see her again, I think I have a pretty good idea what I might say then."

"Like what?"

"I'd tell you, but Pearl wouldn't appreciate the expletives."

"Well, I hope we can find her again. It's killing me!"

Jade smiled affectionately at this and ruffled Topaz's hair. "Oh, don't worry. We will and it'll have been worth it."

As the gang considered their options on where to go next, Topaz and Jade found themselves obsessing over the mysterious red Gem they'd seen earlier. Why couldn't they get her out of their head? Was it because of how beautiful she was? Maybe it was just how she was walking among the humans without so much as even a paranoid glance. Whatever the reason, they knew how to deal with it somehow. For now, however, they would just have to socialize with others even if they weren't in the mood to do so.

"I know what we can do while we're here," Pearl suddenly said.

"If this involves shopping, then I'm up for it," Zirconia interjected intriguingly. "Especially where human artifacts are involved."

"Even better! Maybe we can go to an auction and buy a few things we can take home."

"An auction? That sounds like a good idea!"

"Ugh!" Amethyst groaned. "Please tell me we're not gonna do this!"

A couple hours later...

The Crystal Gems had made sure to sit up front in order to get a better look at what they wanted. For this liquidation auction, a decades-old furniture store was giving away many of its vintage chairs, dinner tables, coffee tables, and much much more. None of the Gems, save for Pearl and Zirconia, found any of this particularly exciting; even Rose Quartz, who was normally very curious about what the humans had to offer, didn't seem too fond of this whole thing.

The store owner kept droning on about how saddened he and his fellow employees were to finally be closing their doors after thirty years of business; worse still, the man also thought it would be a good idea to bring up some company called Mann Co. that kept trying to drive away the customers and threatening to send him to court.

"How long is he gonna keep talking?" Amethyst asked as quietly as she could without interrupting the man's rambles.

Tanzanite shrugged her shoulders in response.

Out of the blue, the man stopped speaking and walked off, leaving a younger boy (presumably his son) to take over.

"Alright," the young gentleman began to speak quickly. "Let's get on with the auction now. We've got all this furniture right here." He gestured towards a rather tall and lanky china cabinet that appeared to be over 100 years old, a four-foot-tall mahogany drawer, a minuscule metal desk, and a simplistic folding chair. "Anybody want to buy the china cabinet? Anybody? Anybody?"

Zirconia slowly but eagerly lifted up a sign with the number 9 printed on it.

"Number nine, number nine, number nine," the young gentleman chattered. "How much money do you want to bid?"

Zirconia gulped hard and answered with a wispy breath, "Five hundred dollars..."

"Five hundred dollars!" the young gentleman shouted. "I hear five hundred dollars! Anybody want to bid higher?"

Now Pearl had delicately raised a sign with the number 12 printed on it above her head.

"Alright, number twelve!" the young gentleman shouted once again. "How much money do you want to bid?"

"My good sir, I would like to bid seven hundred dollars for that china cabinet," Pearl spoke up with enough confidence to practically infect everybody else around her.

"Seven hundred dollars!" the young gentleman shouted again. "I've got seven hundred dollars! Who wants to bid for an even higher price?"

This went on for several more minutes with the remaining Crystal Gems reluctantly joining in and contributing to this madness with their own prices. Eventually, a few humans seated right behind them started clamoring out to be recognized with their own bids. For some reason, this group of humans consisted of eight men, an ambiguously-gendered person covered head-to-foot in fire-protective gear and only a couple women; even then, however, there was just something about them that wouldn't sit well with the townsfolk. More so than that, they all seemed like they'd known each other for a while and were, in fact, mostly tolerant of each other.

Out of the blue, one of the women- a rather ancient one, in fact -raised a sign with the number 25 printed on it above her head.

"Okay, number twenty-five!" the young gentleman shouted once more. "How much money do you want to bid?"

A full minute passed before she finally said with utmost clarity and impeccable frigidness, "One thousand dollars."

"Okay! One thousand dollars! Going once, going twice... sold to number twenty-five!"

Pearl sighed in disappointment, Zirconia laid her head back while wondering what happened, and the rest of the Gems smirked out of both relief and chuffation. So much for getting to buy a human artifact. As Jade got up first, she suddenly felt another hand grab her wrist.

"What the...?" the green Gem muttered.

She turned around to face the other human female- a much younger, raven-haired beauty -straight in the eyes. What in the world did she want from her?

"There's something I have to ask you." the human woman said.

"Yeah, what is it?" Jade asked.

"First, you need to promise you'll keep a straight face."

"I gotcha."

"Did you happen to pass by a woman with red skin, looking kinda... thick? She'd make a great Mama Cass impersonater if you know what I mean."

"I don't know who Mama Cass is, but Topaz and I did happen to come across that red woman if that's who you mean."

"Good. Now I know I'm not the only one."

Suddenly, the other woman spoke up. "Miss Pauling, what are you doing? Sit down!"

But she just ignored her.

Jade then asked, "So what is it about her that fascinates you so much?"

She thought about it for a second. "I'm not sure... to be honest. She just looked... alien."

"So?"

"She had a rock on her back. Is she a Gem?"

"Yeah, that's what we are." Jade waved her hand towards the rest of the Crystal Gems. "You know about us?"

"You're Gems. Who wouldn't know about you at this point?"

But before they could continue with their conversation, they caught sight of the bright red Gem again. This time, they fixed their gaze on her long enough to get a better idea of what she looked like. She had several black crescent-shaped markings on her face and a white-hued medium-length bob. By the looks of it, she seemed like a rather intimidating individual who was determined in all the infinite layers of the Underworld to do her job, no questions asked. Any second now, she'd notice that someone was staring at her.

Sure enough, when Jade brought her to the other Gems' attention, the bright red Gem whipped her head around and looked at them with such lividity that it caught Pearl off-guard and threw her to the ground. Could it be...?


	5. Chapter 5

"Cinnabar?" Pearl asked aloud.

"You know her?" Miss Pauling asked.

"It was way back when. Trust me."

"Okay, so do you know if she has any weaknesses?"

"Well..." Pearl mulled this over for a minute.

The last time she'd encountered the bright red Gem was when Zoisite had sent her to "rescue" his bride; of course, that had been shortly after she and a few others had chosen to remain with Rose on Earth and a long while before they'd met Zirconia. Still, the only thing the milky-white Gem could remember about her first encounter with Cinnabar was the subdued, bloodthirsty look she'd had in her eyes and the way she'd left herself open to attack. (Feigning vulnerability was a strategy Cinnabar had wholeheartedly embraced when it came to lulling her prey into a false sense of security.)

"...not that I can remember." Pearl finally murmured.

"So... Crystal Gems," Cinnabar finally spoke. "We meet again..." She then turned her head to look at the eleven humans face-to-face. "...and I see you've accompanied some humans this time."

"Hey, back off!" a 24-year-old human male yelled. "We can kick your ass to the moon and back!"

"I wouldn't say that if I were you..." Cinnabar threatened him.

"Why? 'Cuz you know you're no frickin' match for us?"

"No, it's not that. It's just that unlike you, I don't need an army to defeat you. I only need..." She retrieved an eku from the gem on her back and waved it right in front of her rivals. "...this!"

"An oar? A friggin' oar?" The guy started laughing his ass off. "You gettin' this? She's goin' to kill us with an oar!" He continued to laugh, which severely pissed the bright red Gem off, enough so in fact that she swung the paddle-like weapon at her opponent's head and knocked him to the ground.

"Damn it, Scout..." Miss Pauling muttered.

"You dare mock my weapon?!" Cinnabar yelled. "Then prepare to die!"

She raised the eku above her body and just about delivered the killing blow when Garnet punched her side, sending her flying sideways onto the earth.

Cinnabar got right back up.

"What the hell was that for?" she spat out while trying to catch her breath.

"If you're going to attack him," Garnet began. "Then you might as well attack me too."

She threw another punch at her foe, this time through the face. Cinnabar scowled at this and then leapt forward at her opponent, tackling her to the ground. Garnet then proceeded to throw her off and right back down to the ground. Immediately after, the rest of the Crystal Gems surrounded her with their weapons already unleashed, ready to get in on the action.

"Oh, I don't have time to fight this!" Cinnabar groaned aloud. "I need to find Kaolinite!"

"Wait a minute-" Rose was about to say.

But before she could get through to her, Cinnabar quickly shapeshifted into a roadrunner and bolted away.

"What'd she mean when she said she needed to find Kaolinite?" Pearl asked Rose in a subdued whisper.

"I think Kaolinite might be somewhere around here, but why?" the rosette Gem answered her. "Why would Kaolinite be here of all places?"


	6. Chapter 6

When Cinnabar knew she was safe from any more danger, she proceeded to resume her search for her partner. She knew that Kaolinite had blipped off somewhere around here, but she couldn't quite figure out where. The last place she'd ever expected to find her, however, was amongst a group of humans. So imagine her surprise when she managed to track her down to Mann Co., where a seven-year-old human girl was happening to keep her as a slave. Not only that, a group of mercenaries in their sixties and seventies, a middle-aged woman and her son and a man over a century old also happened to be there.

It only took a few moments for Cinnabar to spot Kaolinite before she led her off to another room next door.

"Kaolinite, what are you doing here?" she asked her accomplice.

"Well, what do you think it looks like I'm doing?" Kaolinite asked back. "I've had to tell some humans the history of Gemkind and act like their slave all because some boy loved my mistress enough to hand me over to her."

"Did you really tell the humans how we came to be?"

"Well, the boy's mother seemed interested. She also seems to know about Rose Quartz."

"Oh, that reminds me. I actually bumped into her and her little group a while ago while I was looking for you."

"You did? Oh, this is terrific!"

"It is? Why?"

Kaolinite briefly looked back and gestured to the door behind her. "Here's the deal: my mistress's father, Gray, has a life extender machine that's running low on something called Australium. Sadly, there's no more of this stuff left so unless we can get our hands on Rose to provide as an alternate source, he's going to die. You get that?"

"I think so. What do you suggest we do?"

"I'm way ahead of you, Cinnabar." She produced two gems, one magenta and one black with white speckles, from the back of her head and gave them to her friend. "You remember the fugitives we caught in Cordierite City, right? Well..." She leaned just a bit closer. "I think their skills might come in handy just one more time. We'll have to turn them in once we get back anyway, so we might as well use them for ourselves."

"Oh, I see..." Cinnabar then tilted her head back in confusion. "Wait, are you sure that's even legal?"

"Who cares if it's legal?! We need them to get Rose Quartz and get her now!"

A short time later, the magenta and black-and-white gems began to levitate and glow. They then produced humanoid shapes and shortly after revealed themselves to be the fugitives Bixbite and Snowflake Obsidian from Cordierite City.

"Well, would you look at that?" Kaolinite muttered. "Impeccable timing, you two."

Bixbite looked around for a moment and then glared back at her captor. "Hey!" the magenta Gem cried. "Where'd you get the idea to take us here?"

"I didn't," Kaolinite simply answered. "Actually, neither of us did. However, before we hand you over to the authorities, you and your little friend will have to do something for us."

"For you? For you? Don't make us laugh!" Bixbite and Snowflake then immediately started laughing. "What do you expect us to do anyhow? Cut grass?"

"Not quite. There's a very special Gem we need you to capture... and her name is Rose Quartz."

"Uh yeah, what she said." Cinnabar interjected.

"Rose Quartz?" Snowflake asked aloud. "The Rose Quartz? The Rose Quartz who de-powered Zirconia and brought her over to her side? Her?"

"Yes, the Rose Quartz," Kaolinite answered. "Now go and find her!"


	7. Chapter 7

September 11, 1972

En route to Texhoma

"So what were you guys doing at that auction anyway?" Aquamarine asked the humans curiously.

"We were just looking to buy a few things," Miss Pauling just replied. "That's all."

"Well, there's gotta be more to it than that," Amethyst chimed in.

"What do you mean?"

"You can't just travel together as this one group and then expect people to look the other way. How do you all know each other anyway?"

It was then that the older woman suddenly slapped her across the face.

"We never speak of that, ever!" she spat out.

"I was just asking, jeez," Amethyst muttered. "Seriously, calm down."

"Amethyst, I think there's more to them than they'll let on," Tanzanite joined in. "It's only a matter of time before one of them will open up, though, so just make small talk."

"You sure?"

"It's for the best for now."

The ensemble of humans and Gems had just been making their way through the very top of Texas for the last few hours via RV, and it was very apparent how utterly listless and bored most of them were becoming. Even Garnet was feeling tense by this whole thing; in fact, for a fusion, it was very hard to withstand that much of an aura without threatening to split apart.

As it turned out, one of Soldier's old buddies from the Second World War had recently passed away and they were on their way to his funeral. Zhanna, of course, had to come with and hopefully pay her condolences; as annoyed as Spy was by their constant making out and juvenile sweet-talk, he hoped they wouldn't make too much of a scene for such a somber occasion.

About 3/4ths of the way into their destination, a young lady suddenly ran right in front of the RV, forcing Miss Pauling to slam on the brake and stop the vehicle.

"Holy shit!" Amethyst yelled. "What was that about?"

"Amethyst!" Pearl yelled back.

"What, I can't ask why we just stopped?" Amethyst asked again.

Tanzanite decided to step out first and approach the young human woman herself.

"Who are you and what are you doing out here?" the blue Gem asked the woman.

She took a while to gather her thoughts and compose herself before she finally spoke.

"G-Goldie Sanger," she stuttered a bit. "I'm trying to get as far away from my mother as possible."

Tanzanite finally noticed the fear and pain in her eyes. She'd recognize that look anywhere. She asked softly, "Why are you trying to get away from her?"

Goldie gulped and then answered, "I'm sick of having to listen to my mother talk about how I should be dating some well-off guy who can 'protect' me and 'put me in my place.' I'm sick of it, I'm sick of it! I'm sick of her trying to control my every goddamn move! I feel like someone's constantly watching over me! I-"

Garnet suddenly emerged from the RV and tightly embraced her from the side.

"What are you doing?" Goldie asked while struggling to get away.

"Trying to calm you down," Garnet simply answered. "I know you're scared of what's to come, but we're going to help you. Trust us."


	8. Chapter 8

About a few hours later, the group had finally made it to Texhoma. Goldie was still shaken from that disastrous first encounter, but she seemed to be alright now. As for the rest of them, they didn't seem too interested in talking about the incident again. Instead, they just wanted to get through the funeral with as much emotional strength as any of them could muster.

A couple more hours later, they met up with the deceased's family and friends. Garnet was the first one to notice that the man's next of kin were all Native Americans, specifically Apache Indians, but she kept quiet. She and the other Gems hadn't expected to see any Native Americans since their participation during the Trail of Tears and yet for some reason, they all seemed pleasantly surprised to see them in the flesh. Maybe it reminded them of their fellow Vivianites and Zoisites, but who knew?

The late Bodaway's wife Imala and granddaughter Lolotea were confused to see that his former army buddy had brought along some new comrades, not to mention several women, for the occasion.

"It's good to see you again, sir," Lolotea told Soldier while she addressed him with a salute. "Papaw told me so many, eh, interesting things about you."

Spy turned to face Sniper.

"I had no idea we were dealing with Indians," he said coyly.

The Aussie said nothing.

"Well anyway," Lolotea continued. "It's great that you and your friends could come. Things haven't been so easy since... Papaw passed on."

"Oh dear," Goldie commented. "That's pretty sad."

"Yeah, no kidding. Mamaw's actually handling this worse than I am."

Goldie looked over to see Imala swiping some tears away from her face with a handkerchief. "I can see that."

Before the conversation could continue, Bixbite and Snowflake suddenly crashed feet-first to the ground. The rest of Bodaway's family and friends immediately became curious of this sight and came a little closer.

"Would you look at that?" one Apache murmured as he was inspecting Bixbite with just his eyes. "Two Gems in the flesh."

"Now there's something you don't see every day." another Apache said.

Before any of the other Indians could join in, Snowflake picked up one of the Apache men and threw him onto the ground several feet away.

"My God!" Imala exclaimed. "Did anybody see that?"

The rest of the Indians were too shocked to respond. Snowflake then summoned her weapon, a harpoon, from her ass crack and waved it in front of her would-be victims. While she was doing this, Bixbite decided to join in on the fun and began to spin her braided twintails like helicopter blades. The more her hair span, the higher she rose into the air. Finally, the bright pink Gem was high enough in the air that she could easily stomp on people's heads with just her heels.

"My God!" Imala exclaimed again. "She's just knocking us down like we're nothing!"

"Holy shit!" Lolotea yelled. "Piss yourselves and run!"

But the Crystal Gems and their human allies weren't about to do just that. Instead, Amethyst went right ahead and cracked her whip around Bixbite's ankle, but all Bixbite did was easily kick it backward into Scout's face and send him to the ground.

"Medic..." Scout whimpered.

"Alright, you want a piece of me?" Bixbite called down to the others. "Come and get it!"

Garnet leapt up and tried to land a blow from one of her gauntlets, but she missed and fell to the ground. A few seconds later, she got up and had Pearl jump up on her shoulders. The two Gems had a rather hopeful feeling that this strategy would work; sadly, there were mistaken for Bixbite managed to kick Pearl in the face and send her to the ground (thankfully not managing to damage her gem in the process).

"Pearl!" Garnet shouted while she looked to see what happened. "Are you alright?"

"How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?" Pearl slurred while reeling from the kick in the face. "The world may never know..." She then passed out.

Garnet diverted her attention to Bixbite again. "Now I can show you how this feels!" she yelled as she threw herself, fist-first, at the bright pink Gem. Fortunately, she was successful that time and the impact threw Bixbite straight back into a tree.

"Alright, you go, G!" Amethyst called out to the hot pink Gem.

Garnet let a smug grin etch itself on her face. "Thanks," she said. "It was worth a shot."

Her victory was soon short-lived, however, when Bixbite got right back up and began to spin her braided twintails again. As she began to rise higher in the air, she suddenly snatched the Administrator by the neck with her legs.

"Oh my God!" Imala yelled.

The older woman struggled to break free from Bixbite's grip while trying to make sure that she didn't fall straight down, but with how tightly Bixbite had crossed her legs around her neck, she couldn't exactly think straight. Finally, she had an idea. She started latching onto whatever piece of clothing she could get her hands and flailing her legs frantically.

"Huh?" Bixbite sounded. She looked down to see the Administrator desperately climbing up her body. "Hey! Get off of my vessel!"

The bright pink Gem started thrashing her own legs back and forth in an attempt to ditch the woman, but to no avail.

"It seems that you're trying to kill me," the Administrator couldn't help but observe. "Then do it, you coward, but you'll only kill a single woman."

She then strained her neck forward and bit Bixbite on the shoulder, forcing the bright pink Gem to drop her anyway.

Upon seeing what was happening, Amethyst quickly pulled out her whip without so much as even a second thought and wrapped it around the older woman's neck. She yanked it so hard that it sent the woman's body crashing to the ground, breaking her neck in the process and killing her.

"Ma'am!" Miss Pauling shouted as she watched her boss die right in front of her.

She ran over to the corpse and checked for a pulse.

"She's...dead..." she gasped softly.


	9. Chapter 9

On the way back from Bodaway's funeral, things had gotten so awkward between the humans and the Gems that they were giving each other the silent treatment. It would seem that neither parties wanted to talk about how Amethyst had accidentally killed the Administrator; instead, they decided they would rather talk amongst themselves about other things like whether or not Zoisite was planning to go after the humans again.

"Good grief," Amethyst mumbled. "I can't do anything right; even when I'm trying to save someone's life, I still fuck up."

"To be fair, we almost got our asses handed to us back there," Garnet said. "Bixbite and Snowflake don't look like much of a threat, but then again, these are Mineralisian outlaws we're dealing with here."

"Obviously, that should go without saying," Pearl interjected. "Why'd they come here anyway?"

"I don't know," Rose jumped in. "Whatever the reason may be, we need to stop them before they take things any further."

"Right," Pearl concurred. "Who knows what their motives might be?"

Goldie, meanwhile, was wondering why she found Scout so damn attractive. Come to think of it, she also seemed to think Miss Pauling was pretty damn hot too. This was rather confusing for her at her age, but all she cared about was how much she was in love with them. But why? She'd just met these guys. Why was she already smitten with them when she'd only known them for about a day?

The nineteen-year-old woman leaned over to Spy and asked, "Who do you think is the hottest?"

"Come again?" he responded, a bit confused by her question.

"Well, I've got a crush on two people. I'm... not even sure why, but I do. Which one do you think I should go for?"

"Tell me who you love first."

Goldie briefly glanced at Scout first before then pointing at him and saying, "That guy. You know who he reminds me of? Peter Pan. He's like the boy who never grew up."

Spy looked over to see what she meant and then said, "Obviously, that should go without saying."

"Fuck off," Scout spoke up.

Meanwhile...

Violet, Archie, Olivia, Kaolinite, Cinnabar, Amos, and the rest of the Classic team (minus their Medic, of course, and for some mysterious reason their Sniper) were all seated at a table while waiting for their host to make his presence known. They had just started discussing Mineralisian politics and how times had changed since absolute monarchies were last considered the norm.

"I mean, can you even believe this?" Kaolinite was asking. "Boehmite has already stepped down from the throne and she's only been queen for a week."

"Well, if she was going to step down after only ruling for a week, she probably wasn't meant to be queen anyway," Violet said. "It's just common sense."

"Well, it's a little more complicated than that. Our years are longer than your years, like a hundred times longer. So really, every one of your nineteen centuries or whatever could just be nineteen years for us." She then pointed at the sky. "Besides, when our mother goddess Amber created time in our world, she made it so we could savor each year as it came. How did your gods make time?"

"According to our priest, God made the winter solstice when He put the planets on their path around the Sun. I don't know how He created time itself, but maybe he did it so He could use it wisely when He created us and the other creatures."

Out of the blue, Bixbite and Snowflake flew in empty-handed. Their faces were etched with nausea as if something was making them ill and they had their arms lowered and crossed.

"There you are!" Kaolinite perked up.

"Did you find Rose Quartz?" Cinnabar eagerly asked.

The two fugitives shook their hands vigorously.

"You blockheads!" Olivia suddenly yelled. "Can't you do anything right?!"

She produced a rock from her pocket and threw it at Bixbite's head so hard that it drew blood.

"Ow!" the pink Gem cried as she put her hand over the wound. "What'd you do that for?"

"Well, let's be fair," Cinnabar said. "You did fuck up by not bringing her back here. I don't know if we can trust you to try again."

"What?!" Bixbite exclaimed in fright. "What do you expect us to do now?"

"I don't know," Kaolinite replied. "We'll think of something."

Suddenly, the door opened and everybody turned to see who it was.

"Oh my God," Violet breathed. "Is that...?"


End file.
